A common issue in personal injury orthopaedic cases is whether the damage of which the claimant complains is degenerative or traumatic in origin or a combination. This case illustrates for specialists in neurosurgery, orthopaedics, pain medicine and radiology how the court resolved conflicting expert evidence. It also illustrates the risks of reliance on the claimant’s self-reported history, especially if they have taken it upon themselves to research into areas of medical and legal expertise.

Rezmuves v Birney [2024] IEHC 592 

“A negligent failure to perform a costotransversectomy?” The detail of this judgment will be of interest to neurosurgeons and spinal surgeons. However, particularly as the judgment quotes C v North Cumbria University Hospitals Trust [2014] Med. L.R. 189 which gives meaning to the adjectives ‘responsible’, ‘competent’ and ‘respectable’ in Bolitho, this is a useful judgment to have to hand when preparing a report in a case of alleged clinical negligence.